I would much rather hear Mickey Mouse sing along songs coming out of your Ipad than a toddler screaming for not getting what she wants.
Other people can suck it. It's not a private jet. Babies are allowed to be on planes so by even buying a ticket they're risking being within earshot of one.
Good luck, OP! Hope it goes smoothly.

I had good luck at that age with the DVD player on mute. As long as she could be sucked in by the images, she didn't care so much about the audio.

I could also (mostly) rely on a nap in her carseat at that age, which was a huge help on cross-country jaunts. A couple of flights were nearly idyllic ... my toddler zonked out in her carseat and I got to actually. read. a. book. Other flights required regular rotation of the (muted) DVD player, but overall I found 18 months to maybe 30 months pretty good for airline travel.

Anonymous wrote:I appreciate OP's effort to be thoughtful about this. But an iPad with no headphones or screaming aren't the only two options here. Those of us who had toddlers a few years ago somehow managed to keep them quiet and entertained on planes before the age of iPads and iPhones. Books, little toys, crayons. No question it takes more parental attention, but it is possible.

I almost wrote something like this earlier but thought it would fall on deaf ears. We didn't use iStuff when traveling with our kid until age 6, and probably could have waited longer. Not judging any who do, but it's not impossible to go without.

Anonymous wrote:When I fly with my toddler, I turn on the captions and let him read along instead.

Wow, this is quite a sly little brag. Your toddler can read? Impressive. Was he 18 months old when he learned to read? Because I'm sensing that the OP's child is not quite as "gifted" as yours, so the captions would not likely help.

I am surprised that so many people would be "bothered" by a kids show at low volume. Why don't all the child-hating adults just bring some noise-cancelling headphones on the plane and wear those - that will drown out not only the tiny sounds of Team Umizoomi but also any other noises that might disturb your precious ears.

Just curious, all you posters who say it is not ok to play the ipad without headphones - do you freak out when people are having a conversation near you? Clearly different, yes, but I have been on plenty of flights with people who speak loudly and don't shut up for the entire flight. In my opinion, that is worse than the video. Would you actually ask those people to shut up, the same way you might complain about a video? I am not being flip, just truly curious if you would say something in one situaion and not the other.

I had this happen right next to me a couple of years ago. The mom blared a movie for her about 2 year old. Had the mom acknowledged, yes it's loud and I'm sorry, I probably wouldn't have minded at all. I'm a mom, I get you are at your kid's mercy when trapped on a plane. But the mom was such a bitch about it, non-apologetic and seemed almost like she was daring me to defy her, I was super upset about it and laughed inside when someone a row up called the attendant over to tell her to turn it down.

So, my advice is always sweeten up to the ones around you and apologize for it in advance. They'll be much more accepting. Good luck!

The other passengers will have to deal with it. Kids happen
You're traveling, not sitting in a theatre

I appreciate OP's effort to be thoughtful about this. But an iPad with no headphones or screaming aren't the only two options here. Those of us who had toddlers a few years ago somehow managed to keep them quiet and entertained on planes before the age of iPads and iPhones. Books, little toys, crayons. No question it takes more parental attention, but it is possible.

Anonymous wrote:why don't you try a different set of headphones?

This. There are several styles and she may prefer one over another -- one may look less scary than the others. We went to Best Buy and Target to look at different ones when we needed them for a long trip. On a recent overseas trip I saw one kid who had what looked like a mini stuffed animal that was a headphone, but it was only for one ear. You could also try the ones they supply on the plane -- maybe if she sees others wearing them it will put her more at ease.

If headphones are not an option I'd only use the volume if it were not loud enough to be heard continuously by anyone not traveling with your group. That said, sounds from an annoying video or game are usually better than those from an unhappy toddler and exasperated parents.

The flight I took, the flight attendant told us to turn the movie off. I can't remember why we didn't have headphones, but the volume was super low that we literally had to put our faces next to the screen in order to hear it. It wasn't bothering anyone. We were in first class...not sure if that made a difference, but she was a witch.

My DH and I had this discussion 2x a year for a couple years when we would fly with our young son before he got used to wearing earphones. He kept trying to put them on DS, who was willing to wear them, but could never get over-the-head ones to stay on or earbuds to stay in....

My view was that as long as it wasn't crazy loud I didn't think people would care, and in our case, for a 2 hour daytime flight, I don't think they ever did.

I would always rather have a quiet happy kid and maybe hear a little Elmo in the background to one that is whiny, fussy, kicking the seat, roaming around, etc.

Anonymous wrote:My experience has also been that ambient noise drowns out a video played at a low enough volume. We used our portable DVD without headphones when we flew a few years ago and I could barely hear it and I was sitting right next to him. Ignore the bitchy posters -- you will be fine. 18 months is a really tough age because they are not really old enough to understand why they need to stay still and quiet.

This!

I have done numerous cross country flights with my two toddlers. You need to take a deep breath and prepare for her to scream and be poorly behaved then you will fly and she will be wonderful and you will wonder what on earth you were worried about.

I have only had flight attendants tell me to turn my portable dvd player down. I said "ok but I hope they won't cry," to which the other people around me told the flight attendant to back off! LOL!